A Rescue from Winter
by sky-watcher22
Summary: Sandy Newell joins the Army with dreams of becoming a medic and furthering her profession. When she is offered a chance to work in the field however, she meets a charming young Sergeant who struggles to remain who he is after their unit has an encounter with Hydra. When Bucky falls from the train, does Sandy have what it takes to save her friend?Love? From a fate worse than death?
1. A Call to Action

Chapter 1: A Call to Action

1932: " _Alright Sandy, Now you make sure to keep your heels down and eyes straight ahead." Called my Pa as I trotted around the hot and dusty ring on our family's farm._

 _" Got it." I said, voice tight with concentration, eye's focused on the turn I was about to pull._

 _" And, GO!" Pa shouted as I whistled a tone and Bear flew into a gallop, tearing around the poles under my guidance._

 _It was a perfect dance we performed, not that I was much for dancing but that was beside the point, it was flawless and it was going to beat those know it all cowhands come Saturday's rodeo. It had to, those winnings were all that kept us with a roof over our heads._

Sandy was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of the announcer calling their number.

" #23 Sandy May Newell!" Called the man in the stand. " It's just Sandy!" The girl shouted as she got into position at the gate. The sand looked perfectly groomed and the air was oven hot, just perfect conditions for a ride which should be over within a few seconds.

" Ha,ha! Feisty dame ain't you?" Asked a tall man with a bushy mustache. Sandy ignored him with a roll of her eyes.

"Well, aren't cha going to be a lady and say somethin?" The man pressed.

" Aren't you going to be a gentleman and not cry when I race all'a you into the next county?" Sandy retorted and began her ride.

Bear galloped briskly up the the first pole, taking it in stride and proceeding to weave into the second one, change of leads, third. When suddenly the gleam from one the the cowhand's ridiculously large and shiny belt buckles hit Bear right in the eye, making him balk slightly as they took the fourth pole, causing him to bend wide. Sandy immediately took control and urged him forward and onto the finish.

" 23.6 seconds!" Called the announcer as they made their final turn. " 23.6 Bear, we might just bring home something tonight!" Sandy said proudly as they took their victory lap. Shh had a trick that she had been saving which was sure to put them in the running for first. As Bear cantered about the ring, Sandy counted the hoofbeats and carefully slipped under his belly, only to popped out the other side in a blur of sand and movement, standing in one stirrup and waving to the crowd with a flourish. Everybody stood up and cheered as they made their way out of the ring. " What'd I tell you." Sandy said as she trotted past the gobsmacked man, never looking back.

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Sandy decided to take a cool down with Bear, just walk him around in the shade of a willow oak and letting him graze away from the commotion of the arena. It was sweltering and they were not even into the heat of the day. Sandy was loosening her tightly pulled riding cravat to let some of the heat out when she heard a commotion.

She hated commotions, they usually ended with her chasing some buffoons away from a cat or stray dog they were tormenting. And sometimes putting them out of their misery if they could not be repaired. Sandy grabbed Bear with a huff of distaste, set on what needed to be done and trotted off following the sounds. Turning a corner, She saw the problem. Three cowhands were beating on a fourth, the downed fella's hands were thrown over his head to protect it as the other three punched and kicked him.

" Hey! You stop that!" Sandy shouted at them. She was thoroughly ignored. Sandy whistled a tone and Bear reared up, hopped forward and landed with a snort. " Stop that now." Sandy said firmly, finally catching their attention. The assailants laughed heartily. The fellow on the ground just wheezed and coughed. "Look fellas, Ben is so pathetic that a cryin dame had to come save him." The tallest of the three sneered. The others laughed.

" I don't see anybody cryin around here, cept maybe you if you don't turn tail and leave right now." Sandy replied, not taking any of their bait. Bear stepped forward menacingly. " You don't scare us, we could do a lot worse to you little miss." Said the leader crossing his arms. " I broke bout most everything in a stampede when I was five. Docs didn't think I would live. Do your worst, I dare you." Sandy challenged, just daring them to try anything funny.

" Don't you hurt her Jack." Wheezed the cowhand who looked to be having trouble catching his breath. " I don't wanna hurt her." Said Jack with a change of tone, " I just wanna teach er her place." Jack replied, reaching for Sandy's leg. Bear readed again, forelegs striking the boss under the jaw and putting him on the ground, scrambling away from Bear with an ear bleeding from the hoof strike. " Com'on fellas, Ben ain't worth all'a this." Jack said with fear, running past. " And don't you let me see you round here again!" Sandy yelled at their retreating forms. Figuring it was safe enough to get down, Sandy smoothly vaulted off of Bear and knelt on the ground. ' _Not a beaten dog, but the closest thing to it._ ' Sandy thought with a shake of her head.

" Hey, you okay there?" Sandy asked shaking the teenager on the ground. " Urg, what do you think?" He asked roughly, mouth full of sand as he gingerly pushed himself upright. "Well, it looks like you were getting the stuffing beat out of you. Just an observation." Sandy said as she pulled him up off the ground and caught him as he swayed. " Easy now, looks like you've got a concussion, a swift kick to the head 'll do that." Sandy said as he leaned against Bear.

"I'm fine miss, but thank you anyway. You really shouldn't put yourself in danger like that." Ben said. " I know what I was doing. Name's Sandy by the way." She said, taking her cravat and wiping down his bloody face. " Ben. I hope this wasn't the only one you've got. Hate to ruin it." Ben said, pressing the neck scarf to his face. "Keep it, I hate those things anyway. Too constricting." Sandy explained quickly, checking him over for broken bones. She pressed over a spot and saw his consciousness start to drift. " Hey, hey! stay with me now. You really took a beating, who were they?" Sandy asked, wanting to keep him talking. " Biggest one's my older brother, other two are his friends, they're all Jerks and I would suggest you stay away from them if you know what's good for you." Ben coughed.

" Come on, let's get you out of here. You have a horse?" Sandy asked. " Yeah, he's over yonder. Don't think I'll be able to steer em too well though, Charlie stomped on my wrist." Ben said cradling his hand. " I'll get you home. Unless you want to go somewhere else?" Sandy questioned. " No, take me home. My Pa would kill me dead if he found out I was stayin somewhere else. E'd call me an ungrateful brat an I'd prolly have to live up in the huntin stand." Ben said with a hint of panic in his voice. " Alright. I'll take you home. Though it sounds like a terrible idea." Sandy said, walking over to the sorrel Quarter Horse that stood tied in the sun.

The horse's ears pricked, acknowledging her presence, his coat was slick with sweat and stuck to her hand when she patted him. " Hello friend, let's get your guy out of here." Sandy said untying him and clucking for him to follow. " Oh, hey Red. Looks like I was the entertainment again pal." Ben said, dropping his head tiredly against Red's sweaty withers. " Hey, no sleeping. We are moving out." Sandy said with a flick to his head. " Ow, you have terrible bedside manner." Ben complained, rubbing his head. " Com'on I need to get you to wherever you come from and get back here to claim any prize money." Sandy said as She gave him a leg up into the saddle. " 2384 Powder Barrel road." Ben Instructed, Sandy jumped up onto Bear and tied a lead rope to Red's reins so they could move out.

They rode along in silence for a while, tack jingling as they walked down the road. " So, where did you learn to be a nurse?" Ben asked. "My mother and books mostly. Also working on a farm, my Pa got hurt in the Great War, he was a medic, so now that I'm old enough, I'm in charge of most aspects of the farm. Taking care of the animals and people, It all adds up to a good bit of knowledge." Sandy said turning around. " Why aren't you telling me you hurt? I know you are, you're pale." Sandy stated, halting the horses. " I'm used to it.. just keep going. Really I'm fine." Ben insisted. Sandy jumped off.

" Sandy,what are you doing?" Ben asked as Sandy rummaged around in trees and underbrush. " Making you a splint, I can tell it's broken, you can tell it's broken, and it would be stupid to let it stay that way. You know it's near impossible to find work if you're a cripple." Sandy said coming back out with two sticks, some lambs ear for padding and some strong sweet potato vine, along with the potato. Rubbing the dirt off on her chaps she gave him the potato. " Bite on this and I'll have you back in place in a jiffy." She said.

" What?! No, No. Sandy I'm fine." Ben insisted. She gave him a pointed look. " Don't be a baby, I've done this to myself before." Sandy said, looking critically at his crooked and swelling wrist on the saddle horn. The numerous fading and fresh bruises on his arm were not lost to her. Ben relented with a sigh and stuffed the yam in his mouth, giving a thumbs up. " On three. One, two," Crack! Ben gasped around the potato. " Three!" Sandy finished, quickly tying the lambs ear and brace sticks tightly with the vine. Ben yanked his teeth out of the potato and glared at her. " That was not three." He protested. " I know, it never works right if you wait to three." Sandy explained simply, hopping back into the saddle. " I.." Ben shook his head. " Thank you Sandy. See you around?" Ben asked, turning his horse down his home road. " Maybe, if you ever need a place to stay, 4104 Cedarbrook road is as good as any and as far as I'm concerned we could always use another farmhand. If you know your way around cattle you've pretty much got the job. Have to go now, I have some prize money I need to collect." Sandy said, setting off at a canter for the rodeo grounds again.

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1941:

The Depression bred em tough, made them frugal and willing to do about anything to survive and very little fazed them by the time it ended. Sandy could prep a deer, ride in rodeos and roundups, kept up the farm with her family and continued to educate herself medically, reading any book she could come across from the traveling library which would drive into town every two weeks. Sandy and the other members of her town believed they were prepared for and had experienced the worst life could throw at them. Until one Sunday morning in December. Sandy and her family were on their way back from church when they noticed something strange. Her neighbors, all of them, gathered on the wooden porch front of the Delancies. Listening to the radio and crying, or staring stone faced in disbelief. As they got closer, Sandy heard the voice of the president announcing sorrowfully that an active naval base in Hawaii had been bombed and destroyed in an unprovoked attack by the Japanese. Sandy could barely get her head around this fact when she heard the fateful words, " This is an act of war." and then she knew, their lives would never be the same.

Within the week the drafts begin, recruitment centers open in full force and everybody is rushing about trying to prepare for an up and coming war. Sandy was busy handing out recruiting flyers to anyone who passed by, when she saw one of interest, " Join the Civil Air Patrol, help protect our coastlines." Read the advertisement. Well, she did not know anything about planes, but maybe they could use someone with medical experience around, maybe she would even get a chance to learn more considering from the description it appeared they were actively engaging U-boats? She would have to check this out. "Recruiting at airbase 21 in Beaufort." Sandy whispered to herself, committing it to memory..

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1943:

Sandy came into the base 21 med bay on a warm Saturday morning to find Ben and medic first class Pine carefully poking at the leg of Lieutenant Thomas, who lay on the table wide eyed and trying to control his breathing. " Captain Newell, You might wanna take a look at this." Pine stated, keeping pressure on Thomas' bleeding leg. " What have we got?" Sandy asked marching over. " Shrapnel from a plane, and it's deep. Might be nicking an artery." Ben explained. " Femoral? He looks pretty shocky Sergeant. Get him some blood out of the back, B+." Sandy ordered.

" On it." Replied Pine releasing pressure and jogging out of the room. The blood continued to well up rapidly. " And bring a tourniquet." Sandy shouted out behind her as she pressed on the wound. " How are you doing today Sandy?" Ben asked as he checked the Lieutenants pulse. " Oh, just dandy Ben. You know how much I like to come into work and find one of our best mission pilots bleeding out on your watch." Sandy said sarcastically shaking her head in disbelief. Thomas thrashed suddenly and Sandy and Ben grabbed hold of him to make him settle. " Pine! Where is that blood!" Sandy exclaimed just as she heard boots pounding down the hallway.

" Got is Ma'am!" Pine said turning the corner and running over to the table. " Good. Did either of you administer Penicillin? Morphine?" Sandy asked, still trying to gather information on the case as she secured the tourniquet with a twist. " Yes Ma'am. Standard dosage." Pine replied professionally. " Good. Let's get this done. You're going to be just fine Lt." Sandy said loudly, wanting to make sure the pilot understood her before she started digging around in his leg. Ben and Sergeant Pine were already applying pressure, ensuring that the pilot would not move reflexively and drive the piece in further. She received a mumble and a weak thumbs up and began, taking her finger first to feel for the piece, than going in with her forceps to grab the errant bit of plane out with extreme care, not wanting to cause any more damage to the surrounding tissue. With a steady hand, she pulled and the finger length piece of yellow aluminum was successfully extracted. She released her breath as she put it into a jar, " Foreign body extracted." Sandy confirmed, tightening the lid of the jar. She figured Thomas would want to keep it after all the trouble it had caused, a real war wound. " Alright, get him patched up and in recovery." Sandy said walking over the the sink to wash up. " Yes Ma'am." The other medics replied as Sandy started to write down the case report.

Second Lt. James T. Thomas, 48. Brought in after a U-boat engaged his 1942 Piper Cub # CP4285 at 0800 hrs. Injuries sustained: aprox. two pints blood loss, 

suspected Femoral.A damage was negated and a by measure, two and a half inch piece of yellow aircraft grade aluminum was extracted from the wound.

compiled at 0830 hrs August 18th, 1943.

Sandy typed with finality before sending it off to the administrative and radio room. She puts the newly typed file down with a sigh as she pulls a draft notice out of the stack of mail. It is for Sergeant Conroy, he surely is not going to like the news, he was only 21. They seem to be grabbing them up younger every day and she feared that there would not be enough members to keep the base going if they kept drawing from them like they were. Since so many of them have been drafted and taken overseas to fight in the war against the axis powers, Sandy wonders often if her skills could be of greater use out on the front. " _If I enlisted I could help so many people and make a difference out there. Surely they can recruit an equally skilled medic for the squadron."_ Sandy thought to herself.

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After their relatively quiet shift Sandy and Ben sat reviewing the cases of the day. There had been Lt. Thomas with his leg, a green recruit who somehow got his foot run over by one of the planes and promptly wanted to quit the patrol, three people forgot to hydrate again and fainted flat out on the flightline, and one person got their first pilot diamond, a wound, later turned scar on the head received from not ducking under the wing of a high wing aircraft. It was a calm but quite hot day so they decided to go to the local soda fountain Yum Yum's, on their way home in order to pick up something to eat as they had been so preoccupied with their work as to forget to take a break. " I have been thinking about trying to enlist." Sandy admits while enjoying the cool wonder which is a chocolate milkshake.

Ben freezes, "Why Sandy? You know you will be safer stateside." Ben questions. " I just think that I would be of better service out there in Europe instead. I want to continue my training. You know I could do it." Sandy pressed crossing her arms. She had always hated to be told that she could not do something just because she was a woman, It was a completely ridiculous stance that she loved nothing more than the prove wrong. " We're safer if we stay in America, you know those U-boats can't get us on land." Ben joked. " And are _you_ any safer Ben? I've seen those bruises on your arms and they ain't from a roping accident like you tell everyone. Why don't you join up, get away from all that madness at home?" Sandy suggested even though she knew it was a sensitive topic. Ben could not help but release a tight laugh. " Do you hear yourself Sandy? Get away from your crazy drunkard father by joining the war. Where people are shooting at you.. How does that make any sense?" He asked. " You would at least be in charge of your own life a little more. Not go home and be the family scapegoat and punching bag!" Sandy explained quietly.

Ben shook his head and stood up. " I'm done with this! I'm going home." Ben growled. "Ben Please, I didn't mean to press." Sandy said, wishing she could take back her words. "You can come by when you are able to for once get some sense into your little head!" Ben said harshly before marching out.

Not one to be disheartened, Sandy finished her milkshake and left the soda fountain to wander through the busy streets of Beaufort, after passing through the market where the rare fresh fish hung from the stands at exorbitant prices due to the hazards of the catch and every man shared the latest news of the war effort, she found a recruitment station which had been set up near the dance hall, the sound of Frank Sinatra's "It's Always You" drifted out into the warm evening air.

Sandy took a breath and slowly pushed her way into the center. Men lined the walls, shirtless and waiting for inspection to determine their readiness for service, some watched her curiously, others unfortunately voiced their opinions on the matter. " Who let a dame in here?" One asked. " You here for a show lady?" Asked another. " I'm good thank you, I have seen plenty of shirtless men before. It is not as scandalous as you would believe." Sandy said sitting down and calmly picking up a newspaper. Nazi U-boats spotted off Virginia coastline! Read the headline, four in a formation was a pretty unique spot, she would give them credit for that. Sandy thought as she flipped through the paper. Sandy glanced over at another paper, which was turned to a full page advertisement for the 1943 World Exposition, only in New York City. This year featuring a flying car prototype by none other than Mr. Howard Stark, it would change the future of driving forever! The advertisement declared.

Soon Sandy's name was called and she went to the exam room. " Just sit down son, we will have this done in a jiffy." The doctor said not looking up from his clipboard. " Um.." Sandy doctor looked up and gasped. Eyes getting big, he sputtered, " I will get a nurse." And ran out of the room. After a very thorough examination and some explanation that she had medical certification and training at both the local hospital and the Civil Air Patrol, Sandy was proven to be fit for duty and was rewarded with a big ink 1A classification. Upon receiving orders, Sandy noted that she had to pack that very night as her train was headed for camp Butner in the morning.

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Sandy got home to the farm near nightfall and hurried to gather up her hens from the many places they had chosen to roost. She left the giant and often testy rooster Chanticleer where he had placed himself,no need to crawl around in the barn rafters to get a rooster who is inclined to kick. Sandy wagered as she caught and carried a pair of hens back to their modified barn stall.

She wondered just how she was going to break the news to her family, not that she needed permission, she was a full grown woman and was allowed to want to go follow her profession and not sit around looking pretty to wait for a man to grab her up. With that thought, she firmly latched the door, left the barn and headed for the house. She was going to miss this place, but she knew she had a greater calling. She pushed open the rickety screen door and the set of cheery wind chimes made out of old bent spoons clattered at the change of air pressure.

" Sandy? That you?" Sandy's mother called around the wall. " Yes Ma, I'm home!" Sandy called back as she turned the corner. Her mother turned from her labors in the kitchen and wiped her brow with a sigh. " There you are hon, can you take over potatoes for me? Your brother's run off again." "Ma, you wouldn't believe what I did today." Sandy said sitting down at the table. "I can wager a guess, you took your shift at the health center and went up the the patrol? They didn't send you and Ben out again did they?" Sandy's mother asked handing her an apron full of potatoes to peel with a spare crafting knife. " Did Ben ask you to go steady?" Sandy's brother teased, appearing around the corner with a baseball glove in hand. " No, We are not." Sandy said cooly, thinking back to Ben storming out of the soda fountain to run right back to his crazy family. " I'm going out to practice with the guys, see you around!" Roger said running swiftly out the door. " Roger! Don't you go abandoning us!" Sandy shrieked out the door. " Woman's work, Woman's work, You are ladies!" The mischievous boy sing songed as he dashed away to the barn. Sandy shook her head. Why were all the men in her life so incorrigible? She came back inside and sat down at the table, ready to continue her task. ' Boy's lucky I'm too excited with the enlistment to put a mayet lax in his potatoes for that woman's work nonsense.' Sandy thought as she peeled. Sandy looked at the latticework cupboard in the corner of the room as she thought of ways to break the news to her mother. No easy way came so she just came out with it.

"Anyway. I got admitted today, I am going overseas to help our troops, they need medics and I think I could help them. My train leaves in the morning for basic." Sandy said into the now silent room, the boiling of the pot became unbearably loud as she waited for a reply. " Why? Why do you want to go when so many people are being conscripted? It is so bad over in Europe and worse in Japan from what I've read." Sandy's mother spoke seriously and slowly. " I want to continue my profession, I can do more good out on the front. Send you all the field pay as well, It'll help everyone. And make my nursing job more competitive when I get back stateside. You know I will come back with stories." Sandy said, trying to convince her family that it is the best option for her. She was going anyway, this was simply a way of letting them know she had not just ran off for a few years.

" You are safe here, you want to hear war stories, ask your father when he comes back, or Mr. Smitthy down the road, he can tell you all about how he spent a week knee deep in a muddy trench, had his best friend shot beside him.. You don't want to go." Sandy's mother argued. " I do though, and I am. Maybe, if a medic had been there with them it could have made the difference, Ronald might be home and I wouldn't find Mr. Smitthy drinking himself to death on turpentine because nothing else works for him anymore!" Sandy exclaimed, then quieted. " Girl's become mannish, and at the worst time to. But I know I can't stop you, ya already signed up." Sandy's ma said shaking her head. " I'm doing this for them, I know I can do this Ma. You always said I could do whatever I put my mind to doing and I have to try." Sandy said softly, hugging her mother who pulled her close, " Please stay safe, don't you go getting yourself killed out there or I will never forgive myself for letting you go." She said releasing Sandy from the embrace. " I will ma, I promise I will stay safe. I'll make you and Pa proud." Sandy said seriously. Heading up the stairs to pack. " I'm sure you would always find a way.. But don't go making promises you might not be able to keep Sandy. I'll talk to your father in the morning, you better be on that train fore he gets a chance to stop you. You know how he feels about the war." Her Ma replied, shaking the rag full of bean tops out the door for the hens to find. " Will do ma, I love you." Sandy said as she headed up the stairs.

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The train for Butner was leaving at 0600 according to Sandy's enlistment forms and she did not want to be late to the station so she hurried to town and called out the southbound trolley car to take her there. She still almost missed the train due to traffic in the main town,but she made it onboard without a hitch, scrambling up the plank as the conductor hollered, "All Aboard!"

"Wow that was close!" Sandy said breathlessly to herself as she settled into her booth and started to read the training manuals she had received from the recruitment center. After she read the entire first manual, and still had two hours to go, she looked out the window at the passing scenery, Sandy had never really traveled very far before, never had the need or means. It hit her then, as the train passed through another small town she may never see again to pick up more recruits, and others tried to sneakily crawl out the windows and ditch. Europe was a whole world away and Sandy had barely an idea of the next county over. As they passed Raleigh, Sandy knew their lives were changing forever. Men just out of boyhood who had been laughing and ribbing each other the whole way now sat murmuring their uncertainties, they were heading to war and there was no out for them short of doing something desperate or illegal. The entire atmosphere seemed to crawl with their apprehension, in such a way as hogs being taken to slaughter.

When the train arrived at Camp Butner, there was the typical hustle bustle and yelling of different orders as Sandy and over three hundred other soldiers to be piled off the train and got into two large formations, Sandy was led over to a group of about thirty-five women distinguished as WAAC members and destined to become nurses or secretaries in the Army to free up more men for the fight. They exchanged quiet greeting and got acquainted as they waited.

" Platoon! Atten-Hut!" Exclaimed a loud voice as a pair of officers marched onto the field. They all snapped to attention then got introduced to their platoon leaders Staff Sergeant. Murphy and Captain. Albright who would be in charge of them for the duration of their training. Their typical day was this, wake up at 0500 followed by PT, time down at the mess, inspection and drill before they got down to the day's lessons about care of the troops or managing paper files.

As one of a few WACCs who had been selected for an experimental go at field medic training do to exceptional out testing scores Sandy and another female from her group, Sara Campbell, would receive additional mentoring and lessons in the evening with the male medics. As Sandy and Sara walked through the camp on their way to the lesson they spoke about their lives at home, Sara had come from a little town called Creedmoor, had walked to Butner and demanded to be allowed in. She had an abusive family who had figured she would be more useful to them if practically sold off to a rich but still abusive husband. She took a different path, choosing instead to help as a medic in the Army. " I'd rather die by my own destiny than live anymore years of being someone's supposed brainless little wife." She had said bitterly one night as they sat reading before lights out. Sandy nodded in understanding, proud that Sara had done what her best friend wouldn't do. " I have a friend back home, same situation as you were in, he's probably still mad at me for trying to talk him into joining and getting away from em." Sandy said with a shrug.

Both women were hopeful for their futures in the Army, they would be graduating with technician 2nd class at the rate they were progressing with studies and training. The platoons were allowed mail call every other day to write home to friends and family. The training was extremely rigorous and involved a lot of medical drills,exams, lessons on both complex and basic human anatomy and it's functions,diseases, injuries and finally practicals, stitching up pig carcasses in varying states of togetherness. All of this Sandy did not even flinch from and when they graduated 10 weeks later, the entirety of the medical detail were certified Army combat medics and ready to receive orders to go overseas. Sandy bid farewell to the companions she had made, ten weeks ago they were perfect strangers but the rigors of boot camp had forged an iron bond between all members of the platoon. Soon everybody went back to their hometowns to await their orders.

Sandy received them during one of the daily squadron briefings discussing avoidance maneuvers for the aircrew and search and rescue techniques for the ground teams. She held her breath as she opened the telegram which would decide her fate.

By Orders of The United States Army and the President: Technician 2nd class Sandra May Newell, is to report for immediate service count and is to be stationed in Azzano, Italy with the: 1-0-7th Combat Infantry division. By: October 11, 1943. Or face monetary and criminal charges.


	2. Overseas and Sergeant's Boards

Chapter 2: Overseas and Sergeant Boards

Sandy was on a freighter, the U.S.S Patriot, for a week. A very strange, awkward, and sometimes scary week spent hot bunking with two other shifts of soldiers in hammocks stacked 10 high to the ceiling and Sandy came to quickly realize that first of all, She was glad that she joined the Army rather than Navy as she was seasick the whole time and secondly, those U-boats are very sneaky and dangerous because while an experienced scanner can see them easily from the air, they were near to invisible when viewed from the surface level.

A torpedo almost hit the Patriot, but thankfully missed the ship by 5 meters! Sandy and the other men who had been on deck watched as the explosive churned past them through the water and exploded,throwing seawater over 100 feet into the air. Sirens blasted out a warning all over the ship and naval men as well as all the troops onboard climbed onto the main deck, struggling into life jackets and ready to exchange fire if necessary. Sandy watched the water cautiously for any more traces of the enemy. Then suddenly, she saw it, as did the gunnery sergeant stationed on the port quarter, a faint trail of bubbles churning the sea.

" Torpedo off the Port quarter! Turn Starboard now!" The gunner exclaimed. The ship lurched as it's engine strained to turn the massive ship away from the speeding projectile. Sandy could almost laugh if she wasn't so terrified at the moment, at what might be the irony of her death, a former sub chaser taken out by a sub. While the ship was still in mid swing the torpedo scraped the keel, skimming ominously along the edge of the ship so that the _**Tap-Scrape, Tap-Scrape**_ of the explosive's propeller making contact with the side could be heard directly under Sandy and along the whole port side.

One of the soldiers on deck gripped her shoulder for comfort, though she did not know if it was for her sake or the man's. Either way she allowed the contact as her eyes and ears remained fixated on the sea under her. She knew that if the explosive head did not touch anything on the ship it would not explode and they would not end up like so many of the sailors they had to rescue on a regular basis, left floating and abandoned in a freezing cold ocean with their ship's hull cracked in two. Sandy knew that in the middle of the Atlantic, the chances for rescue were slim to none.

The knocking passed after a few seconds as the torpedo made it out of range, lost momentum and sank to the lower depths. Maybe if they were lucky it would hit another lurking sub and make the journey safer for the next shipment of troops. As a resounding sigh of relief passed over the gathering on deck, Sandy overheard the officers speaking. " It was a sound strategy on the part of the German." Said one Warrant officer to another, "Wipe out the back up before they even reach the front." Replied the other with a nod. " All sailors resume duty, but keep on alert. That is all." The Captain stated over the intercom.

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Despite Sandy's illness from being on the ship it was not all bad, some soldiers had carried onboard an old tin whistle and even a fiddle so there were spirited nightly group shanties on the upper deck, the men happily singing "Haul away Joe" and others. One night everyone started dancing around, someone had smuggled alcohol onto the ship and two fellows fell overboard drunkenly dancing and had to be fished back in. " We didn't mean jump ship Joe!" Exclaimed one of the Corporals as he hauled his friend back over the edge of the ship. "Sorry Brown, guess I got carried away." Joe said shamefaced as Sandy brought the men blankets and told them to go inside to warm up.

Sandy and a few other men who could not quite get their sea legs stayed above deck for the most part as she could not seem to relax while the threat of U-boats and ice was present, her family had brought her up with stories of the infamous sinking of the Titanic fresh on their minds. Sandy walked about the deck checking up on the fellows who looked to be perpetually hanging over the edge of the ship and making sure they stayed hydrated and eating at least a small amount. " How are you doing this evening private Robertson?" Sandy asked as she leaned on the railing, turning her head suspiciously out to sea. " Think the ocean's sick of me yet?" He asked, spitting into the water. Sandy laughed.

" I'd bet it is sick and tired of all'a these people getting sick in it, that's for sure. If only it wasn't so dang big." Sandy said looking out at the endless expanse in front of her. " You ever flown before?" Sandy asked. " Nah miss, I was just a farm boy from the mountains. I've never seen the ocean before now." Robertson replied as Sandy offered him a saltine cracker. " Thank'y." Robertson said with a tip of his cover.

" I flew before I joined up, was in the civil air patrol. The ocean does not look so big from up high." Sandy explained before they just settled in silence.

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When the ship finally arrived everyone crowded up on deck to see the fast approaching land. Sandy and all the men on board were given pamphlets about how to behave overseas, it had things in it like do not make fun of the royalty or of any allies accents, you sound just as strange to them. Sandy was just so happy to get off of the boat and onto dry land she couldn't be bothered if folks around her were speaking any kind of language. "Ahh, good to see you not all green faced Sandy, fraid you weren't going to make the trip!" said Robertson with a playful arm bump.

"Well look who's talking pal, I wasn't the one making intimate acquaintance with the side of the deck railing." Sandy said smiling, she was in a chipper mood from getting back onto land. " It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance miss Newell truly, but I have to go get processed then it's off to western Poland to fight the Krauts." Robertson said swinging his duffle across his back and tipping his hat one more time. " Sandy's smile dimmed a fraction. " Stay safe out there." She said seriously. Robertson gave her a modest grin. " Will do Ma'am, stay safe yourself now." He said turning away and marching off the pier into the crush of unloading soldiers.

Once he was lost to the crowd Sandy knew realistically that she would never see him again, but he had provided pleasant company and she wished him the best. ' Now lets see what the Captain needs me to do first around here.' Sandy thought as she pinned her medic crosses to the sleeves of her pristinely white nurse's uniform and proceeded to the encampment command area to be processed to the 107th. Once that was done, the head medical officer instructed Sandy to go over to a boat which was just coming in to port and had radioed in for medical support for some soldiers with symptoms which sounded like Dysentery to her. As soon as Sandy heard this, she was off to the docks to go treat the men. Sandy and another nurse who came in with the ship are very efficient and work together like clockwork to treat people, re hydrating them and giving them penicillin to control the harmful bacteria making them sick.

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Two days later Sandy had been gathered up along with a group of other men assigned to the 107th division, put into a caravan of tent backed military vehicles and transferred to the front lines deep in the forests of northern Italy, the 107th's command base. The convoy bumped along for endless miles as Sandy inspected the supplies she had been assigned upon her in processing, and wrote down a running inventory in her field notebook. As the convoy neared the encampment the lead vehicle honked a pattern and the guardsmen lifted the gate, allowing Sandy to look out at the forest of tents.

Men marched around, briskly and professionally going about the day's business, collecting their bearing after having to leap over deep trenches of mud over a foot and a half wide which had been caused by previous convoys cutting into the ground. The vehicles halted and everyone jumped out and started unloading fresh supplies and men for the camp. As Sandy jumped down, mud splashed up onto her skirt and staining the white fabric. 'Good, maybe they will let me have pants now." Sandy thought. She could only hope. Than she realized that she was sinking, the sticky mud pulling her feet down into itself. She picked up her foot only to have the mud sckloop around it creating a distasteful and not at all sanitary vacuum. Sandy sighed, 'No wonder everyone walks fast around here, you stay still, you sink.' Sandy thought as she started out in search of high ground.

As she worked in the nurses station later that day, Sandy inquired about the possibility of being able to work in the field as a medic. " I highly doubt they would let you do that. It's not our place and you should be grateful for it." Said Head nurse Captain Edna Hayworth as she tended to a soldier who was sweating with a fever from an infected wound he had received in the field. Mud was good for nothing, it just led to suffering. Sandy concluded as she helped Captain Hayworth clean and redress the wound. " I know I could do it though, I just need to be able to convince someone to give me a chance. They won't be sorry." Sandy said as she tipped a canteen of clean pre-boiled water to the soldier's mouth and made him swallow as gently as possible.

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Unbeknownst to Sandy, a young Sergeant stood leaning against the medical tent as he waited for the diagnosis of one of his troops. The anxiety of waiting around for doctors to decide the fate of one of his friends was too much so he distracted himself by trying to eavesdrop on whatever gossip the nurses may talk about and he is about to leave when he hears a new voice from behind the curtain and decided to stay. It would be nice to hear a fresh voice if nothing else, have a reason to stick around.

As he listened, Sergeant Barnes came to realize that this girl really knew what she was talking about and was a firecracker to boot, yet gentle. The way she spoke reminded him of Steve. All heart and never knowing when to give it up. She wanted to try and be a real medic? He'd give her a shot, didn't know if she could really do it but hey, if Steve and his men had taught him anything it was that if you don't let someone try they will keep pushin until they can prove you wrong.

Barnes coughed suddenly, deep in his chest and he groaned in annoyance, he did not need to be getting sick and laid up for the up and coming battle. He knew it was coming, could feel it in the air of the camp. People were electrified as they marched around restlessly, new fresh greenhorn soldiers were being brought in to fill out the ranks; Most of them would not be coming back and he knew it. It was the best he could do to pick up this medic and give his own troops the best chance they could get, all he had to do was get Captain Fishburn onboard and he would call up a short meeting. He'd probably get her, the Captain does not really care who is in Alpha squad as long as they get the job done. With that Sergeant Barnes set out to find his Captain.

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Sandy was hard at work tending to several soldiers needed looking after, trying to get them to eat and entertaining them with stories of her rodeo escapades and adventures flying when an officer entered the tent and the troops saluted from their beds. Sandy set the soup down and stood at attention. " At ease boys, I should be saluting you for your bravery in the last fight not the other way around." Said the Lieutenant as he walked up the Sandy.

" Good evening nurse Newell?" The Lieutenant questioned, " Yes sir, that is I. Do you need assistance?" Sandy asked curiously. " Miss Newell, your presence has been requested in the command unit immediately to discuss your position and reason for being here. Now I know you are new here so the command tent is straight down the center aisles of this encampment, right in front of the flag. Go there and await further instructions." Instructed the officer. Sandy felt worry gather in her stomach, had she done something wrong? She did not think so, nothing that would warrant an officer's meeting about her. " Yes sir, right away." Sandy replied instead, it could be nothing of concern or she could be being dismissed.

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As Sandy waited outside of the command tent, trying to balance on a narrow brick placed outside to get away from the mud, she tried her hardest not to listen in to what was being discussed. Mostly strategic plans and shipment schedules for supplies but then her name was brought up and she leaned against the canvas to hear better. Suddenly the tent flap was pulled open so quickly that she almost stumbled into the tent, now that would have made an impression she did not want to convey. The Major at the head of the room lifted his eyebrow in question. Sandy walked quickly forward and saluted the Major.

" Medical aid Sandra M. Newell reporting as ordered sir." Sandy began professionally. The Major returned the salute. "Please sit Miss Newell, this should be over shortly and you can return to your post." The major said with a bored expression as if he did not know why he was being asked to discuss the position of a nurse when he had war plans to attend to. All persons in the room, four Captains and their Sergeants nodded the affirmative.

" This is a meeting to discuss the possibilities and terms of a transfer for the nurse in question to a willing squad in replacement of a trained male combat medic. Please state your qualifications now Miss Newell to be submitted before the command." Declared the Major. " Major Malnor, you can't be serious!" Exclaimed Captain Teech harshly, interrupting Sandy and at the same time frustrating her, urging her to show them what she could do. " Hey, would ya let her speak already?" Sergeant Barnes asked. " You watch your place Sergeant, she doesn't care." Snapped Teech. " I can speak for myself thank you." Sandy said ignoring the men's bickering.

The room went silent and she continued, looking between the two who had been snapping at each other. " As the Major requested, I have been medically inclined since I was a child. My father was a medic in the Great War and he taught me what I knew in the beginning. In addition I was self taught in books until I joined the Civil Air Patrol, achieved the rank of Captain and title of head medical officer for the squadron. I later joined the Army and was admitted to an experimental training program to allow woman to be field medics which I passed at the top of my class. Do you need anything else?" Sandy asked the room. " No, thank you Ma'am. Your experience is considerable, the board will now discuss the matter. You are dismissed." Malnor said with a nod of approval. Sandy left with a salute, still confused as to how she had been chosen to be questioned.

Sergeant Barnes had found himself staring as he listened, he didn't mean to but that Sandy was something to see. Tan skin from hard work out in the sun, chocolate blonde hair, and cobalt eyes that commanded the attention of the room. Her voice had a touch of a southern lilt but he did not think that would be a problem for his guys, she just seemed different. And my-oh-man was she smart, that was what had first attracted his attention through the tent flap. A quick wit and a no mess attitude to boot, he respected that in a woman.

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" We will now make our opinions known." Stated Major Malnor to the room. " I personally believe it is a bad idea, but I honestly think that this is a matter for the Sergeants to discuss, we all know that they deal with the close workings of the troops, it should be there call." Captain Fishburn said opening up the floor.

" I'm against it. It's not natural and it's not there place." Sergeant Davis said leaning back in his seat with a sense of finality. " I agree, a woman's place is in the home, not the battlefield. If they all start fighting, who do we have to protect, to come home to?" Questioned Hartford. " Um, Maybe an America not taken over by the Axis?" Barnes suggested smartly. " Shut up Barnes. Nobody asked you." Harolds quipt. " My opinion matters on this board too Harolds. I've been in the field more than you and you know it." Barnes said, completely done with the other Sergeants condescending attitude on such serious matters. " Because you set up to have your near whole squad made of Negroes! What do you think they were gonna do Barnes, let yal off easy? No they're gonna send yal out into the worst of it without battin an eye. Far as we're all concerned, you've thrown your lot in with them. You share their fate." Harolds said coldly.

Barnes was so mad he could see red, but he knew he had to remain calm if he was going to win this. Channeling his training, Barnes took a breath and purposely slowed down his heart before continuing. " Why does it matter so much to you people what color someone is, it's honestly absurd. They are good honest men who have been treated the worst in life and still are more respectable than your lot of privileged self serving, arrogant punks. And from what I've seen are more prepared for combat, They've been fighting their whole lives just for the right to exist!" Barnes fumed despite the training.

Unfortunately instead of inspiring them to think differently, it just opened the floodgates for their dissension. "What do you expect to prove Barnes?" "You're going to get it one of these days, always keeping folks around who don't belong." "What's it gonna be next? Gonna start taking in the Japs and Krauts too?" The other Sergeants said as a jeering cluster. Barnes just gave them all a very strong glance, they would never understand. They didn't want to and there was no changing the mind of ignorant, stupid people who thought they were better than everyone gave him a point, a brilliant point that he decided to voice.

" I thought we were here to fight discriminatory racist maniacs, and then you lot show up with the same thought process as the Nazis have? Treating good men in your own camp like they are less for no reason of their own doing. Who are you fighting and what are you fighting for? Are they one in the same?" Barnes asked seriously. The others sat silent. " Good. I see I've made a point that struck home. And I call the medic since none of you asked." Barnes said with finality before marching out of the tent as the Sergeants started to bicker with each other. Major Malnor told them to stop mouthing off like children and they were dismissed.

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Sandy was back in the medical tent tending gently to a black soldier who had been shot in the side. He was hooked up to fluids and blood but had been picking irritatedly at his bandages and looked uncomfortable. " Hey, how are you doing tonight? Any pain?" Sandy asked as she cranked his bed up to allow him to breath easier and eat.

" Doin alright, caught a lucky break far as I'm concerned. And a bit, thanks for askin." He said with a wince." I'm Don by the way." He said reaching out to shake her hand. " Pleasure to meet you Don, I'm Sandy. Though I wish it was under better circumstances." Sandy said as she adjusted the fluids going into the man. " Don't we all." Don said with a tight smile.

" Don! Happy to see you up pal, you really had me worried there. Getting acquainted with the squad's new medic I see." Came a voice from behind her and Sandy swung around to see who it was, she didn't even hear him come in. New squad medic? Standing in front of them was one of the sergeants from the board meeting looking at ease. " And who are you?" Sandy asked curiously. " Bucky Barnes Ma'am, and your squad Sergeant should you choose to accept." He said honestly.

Sandy paused, thought for a moment, and literally snorted with laughter. "Bucky Barnes? What kinda rodeo clown name is that?!" Sandy asked catching her breath. Don just grinned and shook his head, too sore to laugh properly. Even Bucky cracked up a bit at the exclamation. " My name. And I frankly thought it sounded better than my real one." Bucky said with a shrug. " You poor soul, What's your real name?" Sandy asked honestly curious at this point. " James Buchanan Barnes." Bucky and Don said at the same time.

" No. Just no.. your parents named you after a president and a barn? Please just stick with Bucky, it suits you." Sandy said. Bucky grinned widely and asked, "So, do you accept?" Sandy looked between the two. " So if I join your squad I get to go out to the field and no one sticks around to patronize me?" Sandy asked. " You will be part of the motley band of supposed misfits and outcasts of the Army, Alpha squad. All led by a criminal Captain and a draftee Sergeant. Why wouldn't we treat you anything but equal? We're all just trying to survive and you joining us would be highly conducive with that if you are as good as you say." Bucky said keenly. Sandy thought for a moment longer before she said, " Sergeant Barnes, I accept."


	3. Acceptance and Segregation

Chapter 3: Acceptance and Segregation

Sandy leapt over a deep mucky patch as she and Bucky made their way to the far end of the camp where Alpha had been placed. As she skidded in the substance upon landing she eyed her uniform with distaste. It was wet and mud had slung halfway up the skirt, no longer fanning out like it was supposed to. Bucky chuckled in his nose. " What is it?" Sandy asked, slightly annoyed. " S'nothin really Sandy, just mud and Europe, they become synonymous after a while."

" Barnes, I know mud. I grew up around over three hundred head of cattle at any given time, this stuff ain't mud, it's muck. There's a difference." Sandy said flicking the goop off. Barnes laughed heartily. " Farm girl eh, heard your kind is tough." " You have no idea." Sandy said with a smirk. They kept walking. "We are moving camp soon enough though, the line in Azzano keeps creeping closer and we have to pull the command back every other week." Bucky explained.

As Sandy avoided yet another huge puddle she thought moving was a wonderful idea as a base camp is tough on the ground when it is dry but there had been on and off rain for the past week as she had heard from the other nurses and it has turned the grounds of the encampment into almost impassable muddy pools which was not helping the men's foot conditions at all from what Sandy had already seen, one soldier had a case of trenchfoot so bad that they almost had to amputate.

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When they finally reached Alpha squad Sandy stopped to take it all in. There was the usual muck, though the camp itself was new enough that the substrate still had bits of grass and twigs visible. There were about 11 large canvas tents with obvious water stains on them, interestingly with pieces of sappy pine bark covering the leaks to seal them. Trees dotted the area and it looked like the camp had been cleared out of the woods, keeping the trees but chopping the underbrush. Inside the tents, 2 to 4 people each sat on cots reading letters, checking gear, cleaning rifles and smoking by a fire which had been set up above the ground on a spare piece of tin paneling they had found somewhere. Despite the rough shape of the housing, everybody looked content as they went about their business. It reminded Sandy of a Hooverville that had sprung up outside of Beaufort for a good two weeks during the depression while people begged for work which was simply not there.

" Welc." Bucky began, "Squad Atten-Hut!" A burly man with a bowler hat and red mustache bellowed. Everyone scrambled upright. Barnes sighed, " Dugan will you quit doing that? It's embarrassing and I'm not an officer, I work for a living." Bucky said firmly. " Just messin with ya Sarge." Dugan said. Bucky shook his head," As you were everyone." Bucky ordered and everybody went back to doing what had previously occupied them. " As I was saying,welcome to little Brooklyn, our home until we move again. It's not much, but it's dry enough now." Bucky said gesturing at the camp.

Considering what it was the camp of Alpha Squad was very orderly and professional, it had to be, they were an experimental squad and would be judged more harshly than the others on matters of sanitation and conduct. Bucky helped his men set up a smaller spare tent for Sandy to live in and Sandy left to get her duffle full of her personal items and spare uniform because the uniform she was wearing was filthy from getting over to the camp and they could have a surprise inspection at any time.

When Sandy returned and settled in she was introduced to second in command and transport official, Corporal Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan, who offered Sandy a lollie with a grin, " Nice to have you on board medic. We surely need one'a you." He said shaking her hand. 'Where did he even get those out here?' Sandy wondered as she was lead over to pair of black man who were tinkering with the tuning system of a backpack field radio. The older man handed his assistant a few tools and stood up, introducing himself as the squad's communications official Private Gabriel Jones, formerly of the 92nd infantry. " Col. Almond didn't want me around anymore after I got hurt so he just let me stay." Jones explained. " There loss pal." Bucky said patting Jones on the back. "And this is my assistant and friend, Private David Franklin." Jones said, gesturing at the fellow who sat hunched over the radio, brow furrowed in concentration as he worked on the delicate part. " Think I cleared up the problem Gabe, the tuning switch was clogged up with mud." Franklin diagnosed. " How did mud get that far in?!" Gabe asked with shock, turning to his partner. " I don't know Gabe, prolly the same way it gets into everyone's nooks and crannies." Franklin said with a shrug as he closed the radio.

They were really smart and and excellent linguists having gone to Howard University for language studies. Between them they could speak fluent French, German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Greek, Russian and Swedish. Gabe as he liked to be called, was also an excellent trumpeter. " I played once with Louis Armstrong, and that's the straight truth!" He said flashing a bright smile, not even out of breath after playing an impressive piece of jazz for the squad later that evening, who all hooted and cheered for more. Open minded people, Sandy knew she had finally found a place she was going to belong. Alpha was a safe place for those who were beside the norm and that had basically been Sandy her whole life.

" Better than that USO song eh Gabe?" Asked a soldier, who had introduced himself as Martino. "I would surely hope so, thank goodness Sarge let us move camp or I thought for sure he was going to snipe out the radio!" Gabe replied with a laugh. " Yeah, no joke. I mean what is that, the new National Anthem? They play it seems to be on the hour!" Martino exclaimed.

In the distance the sound of a jingle floated our way, " _Who's strong and brave here to save the American WAY?!..._ " "We are that's who, I don't see no Star Spangled Captains running around the fields, just us." Said Dum Dum harshly, sitting by the fire and stuffing gravel into his boots to dry them out, then cursing when the rubber soles started to melt on the hot tin. " Gah! I HATE MUD!" He shouted as he yanked the boots away, strings of rubber pulling away with a snap. " Uh oh, Dugan's got spaghetti feet again! Ha ha!" Franklin exclaimed cheerfully as Dum Dum held up the boot, it did look like it had pasta hanging from the soles. Dugan was still grumbling about the war and mud, cursing under his breath.

"Are you alright Dugan?" Sandy asked with concern. " Just tired Doc. What they are getting over seas is the diluted truth, this is war and we aren't dancing around it. It's gonna be tough, it's gonna be messy. Are you ready for it medic? Cause those boys are gonna need you out there." Dum Dum finished solemnly staring into the fire. " If you don't mind my asking, how long have you been in? Sandy asked. " Two tours son, and seven battles deep into this one, joined up after Pearl Harbor. Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. Met Jimmy there, he's a good kid and will always have your back. Got to Sergeant fast for leadership after our last Sarge got killed in Africa when we were stationed near Wakanda during our last deployment. Don't think they needed us at all, the place is practically a myth and surrounded in so much jungle you can't get a truck into it to boot!" Dum Dum rambled on.

"I just got shipped over to Europe a few days back, never been deployed before but I've got a good bit of experience so hope that helps." Sandy said leaning back on the log. "Glad you got assigned, Sarge's been looking for a new aid for a while. We lost our squad's medic a few weeks back. I was good friends with him, he taught me some skills but we haven't been able to find one who'll take us up until now." Jones supplied. Sandy gave a questioning glance, "Why wouldn't nobody take you up? Isn't that their job?" She asked. " We usually get assigned the missions no one else wants to deal with and them Nazi's know how to strike where it hurts. I suspect they have a medic hunter out there." Dum Dum said in explanation. Sandy shook her head in understanding, they were warning her that she would have to be extra careful out there.

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Bucky wandered through camp as he searched for the supply hub, hoping that he could haggle for a spare set of greens for his new medic. He could simply not have Newell running around in white nurse's garb in the field, she would get them all spotted and get herself killed. He knew he was being protective but it was practical, not patronizing and she would just have to appreciate the effort, if not the pants his search would hopefully produce.

When he made his way into the supply tent, dozens of soldiers stood in line to receive fresh supplies provided to them by the generous folks back home and the only thing good that came out of that Captain America fellow and his obnoxious theme song, the civies loved it and they bought plenty of bonds. " What'll it be Sergeant Barnes?" Asked Lt. Brown, the logistics officer. He was often sympathetic to Alpha squad and for that Bucky would be grateful, it was often difficult to find a man on his side who wasn't in Alpha.

" Could I haggle a spare uniform out of you? I finally got a new field medic for the squad and she needs a uniform that the Krauts can't see from a mile away." Bucky said. " Wait, She? You got a dame for your medic?" Brown asked with wide eyes as he pulled out a jacket and paused. " Are you even surprised at this point?" Bucky asked. " I suppose not, you are something Barnes. Manage to break all the rules and still not get in trouble for it." Brown said. " I'm not breaking the rules, I'm making my own rules because theirs are stupid and I have elected to ignore them. My guys haven't failed me yet Brown." Bucky said. Brown sighed, "Alright then, let's get her set up. Continue your crazy experiment."

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Bucky comes back an hour later with a set of fatigue uniforms and field gear, everything short of a gun. " Newell, come over here!" Bucky called. "Yes Sergeant!" Sandy replied, getting up off the log where she sat laughing and sharing stories with the troops and jogging over. " I scavenged you up some decent field gear, can't have you running around in all white, you'll be a target and get us prematurely spotted." Bucky said matter of factly. " Thank you Sergeant Barnes, it's much appreciated." Sandy said happily, gathering up the pile and hurrying away to her tent to get changed, not wanting to be in the damp and muddy nurses uniform that chilled her every time the winds howled through camp and threatened the fire. They were much more comfortable, practical, and she would be able to move better and do her job. Sandy carefully pinned on her medic crosses and folded her old uniform neatly, placing it under her cot before emerging to her new role as the squad medic.

A few days later some officers begin hanging up fliers around the camp advertising that " Captain America" was coming to do a USO show for the troops in a few weeks," Captain America's famous show is coming soon to encampments all over the European theatre!" Advertised the fliers showing the famous star spangled Captain. In the afternoon, Sandy was sitting by the fire, having submitted herself to the task of darning socks of soldiers who had come up and pleaded for them to be repaired while simultaneously planning how to teach them the process. Both because Sandy was going to run out of her own thread ration and the fact that she did not want to be left with the task of darning over 100 pairs of threadbare socks. 'Teach a man to fish.' Sandy thought absently.

Sandy heard whistling and looked up from her task to see Dum Dum coming into camp looking very smug. " Hey Sarge, you hear Captain America is coming?" He asked, knowing it would annoy Bucky who sat on a log trying to balance papers and ink on his knee for lack of a table. " No I didn't and I don't particularly care right now Dugan, Captain Fishburn is giving me issues about some strategic plans he does not like, I don't know why he gave them to me to fix, I don't make the orders. I barely follow em!" Bucky said scratching something out of a stack of paperwork. " Well, I'll bet a good laugh'll cheer you right up. Take a look at this joker, He's dressed up in a flag!" Dum Dum exclaimed, slapping the flier down over top of the paperwork. Bucky sighed as he lifted the flier," Yeah, real funny Dugan, you smeared the ink and, wait.. Is that Steve!? No, it can't be, s' gotta be a look alike. But I'd know his smirking grin anywhere. Must have gotten a job as a face model?.." Bucky wondered aloud, in shock.

" Sergeant Barnes! You are to report to Captain Fishburn for orders immediately." Said Sergeant Harolds marching into the camp and grinning to himself. Bucky sighed in annoyance and cleared his throat. "What do you want Harolds,you and your sick buddies come to mess with my guys again? Cause I won't go easy on you harassing them with all of your backfield separate but equal nonsense.." Bucky said protectively. Harolds laughed, " Looks like you and your guys are getting short-sticked again Sergeant." Said Harolds mockingly. The rest of the squad stopped what they were doing to listen to the exchange, ready to help if it was required.

Apparently visits from some of the other personnel in the 107th had ended terribly for the squad before. "They seem to like us pretty well when we come in to save their backsides." Whispered Jones to Franklin, who chuckled and nodded his agreement. " Yeah, they're just trying to get rid of us, nothing new." Bucky said nonchalant, walking past the other Sergeant. He wasn't going to let Harolds get his goat.

" I'll see you fella's at the mess tent later." Bucky called over his shoulder. " Yes, we'll see." Said Harolds, giving Alpha squad a dubious and uncaring glance before walking away. " Swell guy." Dugan huffed gathering up the papers which had fallen off the log to the damp earth. " I'd say not." Williamson said watching him leave. Sandy made her way back to her tent, she could feel the change in the air, a fight was coming sure as a storm when the cows lie down.


	4. The Realities of War

Double Chapter update because we need to get to some action in this story.

Chapter 4: The Realities of War

Barnes marched into the command tent where stern faced officers stood over a strategy board. Captain Fishburn raised his head to see who had come in. "Sargent, I need you to look over these plans right quick than get your squad hustlin up to Azzano. We have just received word that the 57th has been ambushed on a transport mission and they need backup. Yours and Delta are to deliver. Understood?" Bucky shook his head the affirmative and looked over the telegram. Glancing over at the map however, he noticed something strange.

Among the myriad of Nazi flags pasted all over the map, there was a brown triangle with an H and a question mark printed on it. " What's that supposed to be?" Bucky asked, putting his finger on the map. " Above your paygrade son." Fishburn replied and went back to looking at papers. Bucky slapped his hand on the map. " The hell it is! That location is near where we are being told to go and I'm not going in blind." Bucky snapped.

Fishburn looked up sharply. " Finish your damn report and get out there Barnes, or it'll be the 57th's blood on your hands." "Don't pull that on me Captain, I've already got blood on my hands. I've got it whatever way I turn." Bucky said lowly, already sick of the war. " Go fight soldier. And follow your orders." Fishburn growled. Knowing he was not going to win, Bucky saluted with a " Yes Sir." and left the tent. He turned the corner and dropped the telegram into the muck without looking back.

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" C'mon fellas gear up and get ready to move out, the Cap's just ordered a rescue, our neighbor the 57th has been attacked!" Bucky hollered as he ran into the camp. "Have everything you need ready to move in ten minutes tops, Sandy, you know what to do." "Got it Sarge!" The men shout back as Sandy make final adjustments to her medic yoke and puts on her helmet. "Alright count off and be ready to move out!" Bucky told the group. All were accounted for until 39 did not call out.

Bucky sighed and walked towards a tree. " Williamson? You up there?" Bucky asked. "Y-yes Sarge." Came a meek voice from out of the tree. "Can you come down? You need to keep an eye on your buddy, we are about to move out." Bucky said with understanding. " I can't do this Sarge, I should have run when I got the chance. Why didn't I run?!" Asked the distressed soldier as he climbed down from the tree.

Bucky put his arm around Williamson and led him over to the edge of a tent where they could have privacy for a minute. " Ya know Williamson, my mom wanted me to get to Canada, avoid the draft. I knew I couldn't though, knew if I ran I could never go down the street with any of the hard earned respect I had acquired, life's tough for an immigrant you know. I've been where you are, heck, I'm not going to lie, I'm scared now. But even if you are scared to death you still gotta square your shoulders and plow on ahead. You're going to make it through this, ok kid?" Bucky assured the terrified greenhorn.

Williamson shook his head frowning, " You don't get it Sarge! I'm a Jew, I practically have a target on my head. Those Nazi's get a hold of me and I'm good as dead." Williamson said frustrated and scared, tugging out his dogtags. Bucky looked with new concern at the Private, this wasn't just a case of pre-fight jitters, this was a soldier who was more at risk than any of them, who would be targeted if anything were to go wrong.

" I won't let them take you. Just stick close to me okay?" Assured Bucky. " Alright, I'm trusting you Sarge. Get me back to my family." Said Williamson. "Ok, now fall into formation, the 57th need back up in Azzano and we've been chosen to deliver." Said Bucky. " Yes Sergeant!" Williamson called out, jogging to the formation. "39, Last man Sir!" The now emboldened soldier cried. " Alright Alpha, load up and move out! Alpha!" Bucky called, " AVENGERS!" Shouted the squad.

#####################################################################################################

Even a mile before the convoy of Alpha and Delta squads see anything they hear the explosions of the flares being lit to provide light in the battle and shells being shot into the sky, grenades, mines, and gunfire being exchanged. "This really was an ambush." Sandy said as she looked ahead of the lead vehicle to the oncoming battle. In the back, some soldiers were holding hands in a circle and praying for safety, and guidance, and that their guns wouldn't lock up. " You ready doc?" Dugan asked from the driver's seat of the transport vehicle Sandy was in. "Guess I have to be at this point, It's what I signed up for after all." Sandy said watching the treeline for danger, they were almost to the front. In the moment, Sandy wondered just what they would face out there and if the fear of the unknown was better or worse than that of the present.

"Yer allowed to be scared ya know, we all are. Take it from an old soldier and accept that you are and move on. Don't want you to freeze up out there." DumDum said wisely and halted the vehicle. It was time. Sandy looked around the formations only to find Harolds and Bucky having to put aside their differences and call a truce on the matter of unit division, it was not the place. Delta, it was decided, was to move in from the East and Alpha was going to stay where it was and come in from the South. There was a large hill to the North and a wide gully to the West. No wonder the 57th had been attacked at this point. Delta left to pick up their mark and the tension in the air was thick as pea soup fog.

"Alpha, you ready? Cover your buddy, watch out for mines, hope to see you all on the other side of the field." Bucky said as a last word of advice to his troops before charging in alongside them. Dugan gave a Wahoo as he ran, firing his shotgun like a mad hobo into the fray. Sandy looked out of a hole she had tripped into and did not like what she saw, there were so many people running about and grenades and mines were exploding and creating craters in the ground several feet deep, large enough to hide in. But not without consequence, men crawled away from the pits missing limbs and collapsing. People were falling. It was like a brutal slaughterhouse.

Sandy would run up to a man, prepared to assist and find him dead, already bled out into the ground. Sandy would close his glazed eyes and move on to the next. She found herself carefully dashing across the ground, trying to find troops to aid and avoid injury to herself, she was just as likely to get blown up as anyone, one wrong move and you were gone.

She skidded to a halt next to a soldier whose leg was obviously broken, it was twisted at an unnatural angle and blood was running profusely from mid calf. After quickly dodging a frantic and delirious stab at her with a long field knife, grabbing the hilt and tossing it away, Sandy was able to get the hyperventilating man to calm down enough to understand English. " It's alright, you are gonna be alright. Just stay with me!" Sandy shouted over the deafening noise of the battlefield. Shouts, screams, explosions and orders all collided in a meaningless conglomeration. Sandy carefully stabilized the soldier's leg wound as best as she could, before literally dragging the screaming man behind a tree to avoid a barrage of bullets.

Leaning him up against the tree, Sandy paused for breath, before continuing to patch up the wound. " Hey, Medic!" Shouted a man who was running towards her, also wearing the crosses. Thank goodness, backup was coming. Than it wasn't.. A shot, and the medic collapsed with a hole through his neck. 'Sniper, there is a Nazi sniper somewhere and he is hunting medics.' Sandy thought as she looked around for potential nests. Than she saw it, in the tree right above her, the gleam of a scope in the light of the blast flares and little fires which burned everywhere. Sandy gasped and reeled back, throwing off her armbands and grabbing up a helmet which lay sticking out of the mud. She grabbed the knife as well from where she had thrown it before grabbing handfuls of mud and slapping them over the crosses on her medical yoke. She checked the man once more to find that having applied a tourniquet, the bleeding had slowed considerably.

" If you can, get to the hill, I don't think we will be getting past that sniper easily together." Sandy said to the man. " Don't worry.. I've got this." He said tightly before shooting straight up into the tree. The sniper crashed out of the tall tree and hit the ground before he did not move again. His rifle falling down after him. The troop picked up the rifle, a Karabiner 98 Kurtz, and leaned on it like a crutch before testing his leg and hobbling along the edge of the woods to get up the hill. Sandy caught her breath as she took in the sniper, than checked him and left, crawling to keep low back the way she came from, feeling the ground for loose or misplaced soil that would indicate a mine. Only to have to treat another troop who had fallen on top of her after a particularly bad blast shrieking about some fire blasting tank he saw. Sandy tried to get him to calm down and She thought it was gibberish from shell shock, It happens to the best of them. She moved the man and another she picked up on the way to safety up on the hill where a transport team had moved in, before running back down the hill to repeat the process.

Suddenly a rocket hit the ground not five feet away from Sandy and exploded, the shockwave throwing her and another man through the air and into the roughly shorne wall of a mine crater. Sandy was numb, her ears were ringing, and she felt her head start bleeding from impacting the wall with the heavy helmet. She lay curled in a ball and covered in dirt for a minute not able to even think, then fear and realization pierced through her daze. " Hey! Are you alive?!" Sandy asked as she scrambled around in the hole and pressed her hand to his neck, feeling for a heartbeat. The man sprung fearfully to animation at her touch. Sandy jumped back, remembering that she had almost been stabbed to death by a disoriented soldier not ten minutes before. "Oh, God! I can't hear anything!" Williamson exclaimed frantically, staring at Sandy with wide, terrified eyes. Sandy grabbed him around the shoulders, forcing him to focus on her. She gestured at her ears and made a thumbs up or down motion. Williamson motioned the negative and Sandy help up two fingers, indicating that he should be able to hear in a couple of minutes since she didn't see blood coming out that would indicate a burst eardrum. Williamson relaxed a fraction and doubled over suddenly. Sandy got to ground level with Williamson and felt gently, he could have cracked ribs or be shot somewhere. Williamson yelped and tried to move away.

'Cracked ribs, at least two. Don't think they are floaters yet, not coughing up blood anyway.' Sandy mentally diagnosed. Williamson wheezed shallowly, sinking to the wall of the crater with a wince. He had blood all over his face from a scalp laceration.

Sandy pointed at her ear again, Williamson nodded." You think you can make it back to the hill?" Sandy asked hurriedly, observing a break in the shelling. "Yeah, maybe. Just gotta get up and Woah!" Williamson yelped ducking back down into the crater,

" One just ricocheted off my helmet!" He said with shock said taking it off and observing the new dent it had acquired. "Put that back on! The next one might get you true." Sandy reprimanded while looking over the edge for a second before ducking back down. " Where's Barnes, weren't you supposed to stick with him?" Sandy asked. " I don't know! He told me to run, so I did. There was a really bad explosion..It's all too much. God, it's too much. I'm gonna die and never get out'a this hole!" Williamson said tearfully, clutching his ribs. " You're going to be ok, we are going to get out of this." Sandy promised.

A minute later Bucky has jumped into Sandy's crater along with Gabe and Dum Dum. " Here they come! There's gotta be at least five mortar companies out there. Tell them we need cover now!" Bucky yells over the cacophony of noise as bullets whizzed over their heads, thick as ever. " That might be a bit tough Sarge." Jones replies shaking his head. They are trying to get the backpack radio transponder to work but it has been shot in the fight and is smoking with a hole through it, tubes all blown. " Bucky behind you!" Dum Dum shouted. They are having to cover all directions of the crater to keep from being overrun by Nazi's. " I hate these guys." Dum Dum growled. " They never seem to get tired either." Bucky noted as he shot. Sandy had her ideas of why, this was not the time to voice it though.

Suddenly these strange fire blasting tanks start firing on all of the Nazis the unit had been fighting and they all stop, cautiously standing up to look at the strange tanks. Around them some of the other soldiers start to cheer, believing them to be allied backup.

" That looks, new." says Dum Dum puzzled. " Are those ours?" Williamson asks suspiciously. "I don't think they are." Dum Dum says wide eyed as the tank suddenly points its barrel at the group. "Everybody Get Down!" Bucky shouts suddenly, throwing himself over Sandy as the fire blasts mere centimeters above their heads, rocking the ground and throwing what felt like a ton of dirt, rocks, and wood; The remains of a barricade, all over the group with a concussive explosion! There is a hot blast and the strong smell of a lightning storm fills the air.


	5. Captured

Chapter 5: Captured

After a very long few seconds spent thrown together in a crumpled heap of limbs and guns, Sandy blearily pulls her face out of the mud and dislodges herself from underneath Bucky and the other men in the hole; Only to come face to face with about six soldiers who were wearing masks, helmets and black leather like clothing. On their arms there is a picture of a octopus with a skull for a body. " Um, Sergeant Barnes?" Sandy heard Williamson say uncertainly beside her.  
" Urg,waz it kid?" Bucky asked with his eye's closed, he had hit his head really hard on the dive down. " Barnes, Soldiers!" Sandy exclaimed urgently, this was no time for their leader to be impaired. Dugan scrambles around and aims his rifle at the strange soldiers, who's own weapons whine as if they are powering up. "Stand down!" Bucky ordered, jumping to full alertness as DumDum looks over at him with an uncertain glance. "But Sarge," Dum Dum protests. "Stand. Down. We are still alive we can make a plan. You've seen what those weapons can do." Bucky said firmly, leaning on the wall like he was weakly supporting himself on the dirt while actually deftly unclipping Williamson's dogtags and letting them drop into the mud before putting his hands up. Williamson looked over with an expression of shock and gratitude. They weren't out of the woods yet but at least he was out of the fire.

The soldiers point their glowing guns at the team and yell in German, how odd is that, Germans who had attacked other Germans,unless they were some form of highly advanced native resistance troops. They all raise their hands to their heads and are dragged out of the crater as they all know that resisting at this point will surely get you killed.

The strange soldiers take the backpack radio transponder off Jones, even though it was not functional, and tossed it into a pile with all of the troops rifles which were then destroyed by the infamous tanks, effectively disarming the whole unit as all of their weapons and communication were blasted into oblivion. Those who resisted were gone in a second, reduced to ash while their scream still echoed in the air like ghosts. When they were done it was as if there had never been a battle, save for the craters and burnt grass littering the field. ' This can't be happening, it can't!' Bucky thought fearfully as he was pushed forward roughly with the still hot barrel of a fire weapon. But it was and as the strange soldiers chain the unit together and cold steel locks around his wrists, Bucky knows that they will be hard pressed to find a way out of this mess. And that he was going to sock Fishburn on the jaw when they did get back for not allowing him to know about some equally crazy third party in the area they were being sent into. Bucky looks around, up and down the lines of Privates and Corporals who all looked expectantly his way, trying to get an initial count of surviving troops and this new enemy. Most of his troops were there, Delta had taken a pretty big hit and Harolds was nowhere to be seen. It hit Bucky then, he was the highest ranking man on the field, it was his job to get these men and the 57th home to the command base where they could get treatment and..Sandy? God, where was she? Bucky looked over the chained group with new intensity, searching for her because he was scared for her safety. She was alive, and he knew this but she was a captured female at the mercy of enemies, he could just imagine the implications and they all made him sick.

Just as he was about to worry himself into a panic attack he heard a whistle, a whistle he might have ignored if it had not been so out of place. The call of a Spotted Sandpiper, or a pretty close second and swiveled his head to look. There was Sandy, chained up like the rest of them but no more injured than she was before. Bucky could not help but brighten slightly knowing that she was ok, and just as sharp as ever, who would have thought to use a Sandpiper call? They would both know the sound having grown up along the coast, but these new soldiers would not have. Bucky gave her a thumbs up and the call stopped.

Then the march began, a seemingly endless distance of plodding and slipping through the mud as they were drug along behind a tank they had been hitched to. Sandy heard the soldiers speaking to each other and tapped Jones on the back, " What are they saying?" Sandy asked quietly. Gabe listened for a moment longer before quietly informing her,"They are taking us 30 miles east of Azzano, into Austria to the factory? And what is a Hydra?" Gabe finished. "Guess we are going to find out." whispers Dum Dum.

They walk for the longest time and everybody is very cold because it is now mid October which in European mountains translates to feeling like the dead of winter in the states and there are sporadic rain showers which make everybody soaking wet and quite hypothermic, at this point Sandy is happy they are moving, it is better to move even on limbs that feel like they are going to give out than stay put and freeze. Even at the pace they are going the soldiers shove the captives forward with a rifle butt to the back. Williamson hisses with pain from his ribs and stumbles. Sandy catches his fall and glares back at the soldier for hurting her friend. If they ever got to stop she would help him wrap his chest tight but she could do nothing for now and it was beginning to drive her crazy.

Sandy was hearing more and more people coughing and sneezing both behind and in front of her, " They are getting sick Gabe, some of them might not make the trip to wherever we are going and I can't even help them!" Sandy whispered sadly, she felt like the was failing her team. "Don't worry miss Newell, we will make it and treat all the men we can when we get there." Gabe said encouragingly. Sandy nods her agreement as they were pushed on through the night.

By the time they arrive at the factory three and a half days of forced marching later, several troops had been unlocked and put into military vehicles for the rest of the journey because they were too weak or injured to keep marching. They were kept alive by order of the commanding officer because according to Jones he had said, " Herr doktor needed new patients just as the factory needed new workers, to make progress." Whatever sort of progress the doctor wanted could not possibly be good working for people like this. Over the last few days Bucky had learned that their captors called themselves Hydra, he did not know it if was an acronym for something or if that was their official title, not that it mattered, they were clearly not allies. Hydra was at one point the Nazi's scientific division and their leader,Johann Schmidt, was even more crazy sounding than Hitler, believing myth to be reality and they recently broke away to build their own Army and organization,thus leading to plenty of over zealous soldiers who wanted to show their leaders what they had brought in and could do.

The factory stood like a bleak and highly reinforced castle, the pale moonlight giving ominous shades and shape to the stark grey walls surrounded in fencing which was clearly electrified. One poor soul had thrown himself against the wire and had been electrocuted,he hung on the devilish fence like a puppet without strings. Bucky shuddered and looked away, suicide was an act of lost hope and he steeled himself for whatever awaited them all inside the factory's bleak walls.

As they were led through the extremely large and busy factory Sandy saw more allied soldiers, mainly British, Free French and Polish troops had been captured and were being forced to work on the fire blasting weaponry as well as different parts of what looked to be an aircraft of some kind if the gigantic propellers and engine parts were anything to go by. The incoming troops, still chained, were fastened to the opposing walls and searched for any kind of weapon or anything the Hydra guards believed could aid them in escape. Anyone who resisted was blasted into oblivion and nobody tried after that. Many just stood and let what happened happen, terrified into compliance.

Bucky growled when the guards approached Sandy, not wanting them and their foul hands to touch her but knowing that he could not do anything, the men would need leadership and he couldn't do that if he got disintegrated by some otherworldly gun. The guards apparently had enough sensibility not to touch a lady, or were completely put off by the incredible glare of promised death Sandy was currently giving them. It was a truly impressive glare, the likes of which he had only before seen in Steve. Still the glare did not protect her new medical gear. The guards took most of the major medic gear which they believed could be used as a weapon or escape tool and shoved Sandy and Gabe along, not thinking they were worth antagonizing too much. The guards laughed at Sandy's medic crosses and probably thought that she could be swayed to their side in the interest of science.

'Not a chance in the world that was happening.' Sandy thought as she was left chained next to Gabe as the guards moved on. She felt for the medic gear she and Gabe had smuggled in, She knew them by heart, 4 rolls of bandage wrap tied securely around her middle with a fifth,precious mercury thermometer tied to her upper arm, along with safety pins and a small container of sulfa powder. Around her belt she had tins of Ipeca, Atropine Sulfate, Morphine Sulfate, Quinine Sulfate and Nitroglycerin. Why the guards had overlooked something as potentially dangerous as Nitroglycerin was beyond Sandy, but she was grateful they had. Sandy knew she would have to very carefully use these resources and keep them hidden at all cost.

After the search they were unlocked and hurried to what looked like a prison with open round cells, packed 6 to a cell and locked in. Bucky looked around the small cell, searching for any weaknesses it may possess. As far as he could tell there were none. It was going to take some serious ingenuity or dumb luck to get out of this mess. They waited in silence for a moment, listening to the sounds of the prison, and trying to judge their captor's intentions. What did they want, were they trying to get information out of prisoners?

Suddenly Col. Lomer, the Hydra labor commander, and his small detail of troops marched into the room. He walked mincingly along the line of cages, black stick clinking against the bars before stopping in front of Bucky and Sandy, who were in the same cage as he told the assembled group bluntly, " You are to provide labor for the benefits of great Hydra or be shot." He said staring Bucky down. They glared at each other for a second before Bucky relented and said a begrudging, " Understood." Both were terrible options but at least his unit would be kept alive if they worked. " I am glad we have reached an agreement Sergeant." Lomer said backing up.

" I hope you aren't expecting me to salute you Punk, because it ain't happening." Bucky said crossing his arms. Lomer struck like a snake, one second smugly checking his clipboard, assured that he had achieved a level of dominance, the next striking the cage in front of the Sergeant's face with his black stick so sharply that the metal vibrated in retort. Bucky did not flinch, he had been expecting it. " I hope you soon learn your place soldier. You will comply if you know what's good for you." Lomer hissed venomously before leaving to try and intimidate the men on the work floor, the detail followed and the metal door to the prison slammed shut with a clank.

Sandy looked about her cage before releasing the breath she had been holding. Dum Dum chuckled lowly to himself and slapped Barnes across the back in a brotherly fashion. Bucky and a Free Frenchman named Jacques Dernier, were whispering quietly to each other in French, what they were talking about was not known to Sandy but Dernier seemed to be very excited about the nitroglycerin as Sandy nodded an affirmative to let him use it if we had a chance to escape. Jones' cellmates consisted of British paratrooper, Major in his king's Royal Air Force and second lord of Cambridge, James Montgomery Falsworth. This was actually how he introduced himself and he was a textbook example for why they had to read all of those British etiquette manuals on there way over from the states. Apparently his unit had been ambushed directly upon landing due to some bad intel they had received and had been brought to the Hydra base about a week prior. Williamson was mostly silent as he sat in the corner, seemingly convinced that he was going to die.

The captured troops were taken out of the cages in the morning and marched over to an assembly line where they would be forced to finish parts of the airplane the Hydra workmen called the Valkyrie, more of Schmidt's obsession with mythology.

On the work floor Sandy met Jim Morita as a member of her assembly line chain gang. He was a Japanese-American immigrant from Fresno, California who joined the Army as a radio man because his options were join to serve and prove your loyalty to America, or be put into the internment camps which had been set up out west immediately following Pearl Harbor. The choice was obvious as he wanted to win his family's freedom and honor back. Sandy felt the urge to apologize for the unfair actions dealt to him and his people and as she was about to speak, Morita waved her off. "It's not your fault, you did not have the liberty to vote for or against that, none of the Americans did,the military however, I blame them. Locking us away when we are not even loyal to the empire and then promising us freedom and honor if we fought!" He chuckled darkly, " Looks like either way I ended up in a cage." Apparently he had an ironic sense of humor which Sandy appreciated. Than she heard another horse and ragged cough,

Some of the soldiers are not getting better and those who had started coughing on the way to the Hydra base have only gotten worse over time in the cold cells and stagnant air, Bucky being one of them but he had kept it hidden so far; only coughing when no guard was around for the first week even if it meant turning almost purple as they marched past. He was determined not to let himself get killed over such a simple reflex. Sandy tried to treat the cough with what supplies she had been left with but they were running terribly low due to them being spread out among as many troops as possible. " Sandy no, look I'm fine." Barnes said straightening from where he had been hunched over a cart, trying to convince his body that he did not need to cough out his lung and blow his cover of faux health. His men needed him to be able to lead and not dead from choking on phlegm. " Barnes, I don't care. I can see you are getting worse, so just take your medicine and get back to work before the guards notice." Sandy said not backing down. " Fine, just get it in me later. But remember, it someone else needs it more you give it to them." Bucky said firmly. " Well aren't you the gentleman." Sandy said rolling her eyes at the stubbornness of Barnes. "My ma raised me right." Barnes said with a grin before hurrying away to build more parts.

Later Sandy found herself to be quite pleased when she managed to get Dugan to stare at Barnes with surprisingly effective puppy eyes for such a burly man, and made him swallow down the Quinine powder with his sixth hour water call. It would keep him unnoticed by the guards and doctors just that much longer.


End file.
